Friday Afternoon

Anne and I had another most excellent practice this morning, practicing one of Geeta's sequences. (My tailbone actually began to move in in Simhasana which, for me, is very big news. Yes, I know, I am attached and pleased with the "result of my doing"...sooo immature still....) We came home, had lunch and then made our way to a local batik seller's home where we purchased some snazzy items to add to our pile of plunder. We have a few minutes to spare before class tonight and are here at our favorite spot- the Internet cafe.

Geeta has been gone since Wednesday. So Sunita taught the ladies class on Wednesday, Rajlaksmi taught the pranayama class last night and rumour has it that Chandra will teach tonight. I am sure whoever teaches will be great.

Last night's pranayama class was beautiful and simple. Here is a great teaching lesson for all of us-- A woman asked a question about how to hold her fingers for digital pranayama. (For the uninitiated, that is digital as in using the fingers to close off the nostrils, not digital as in some new technologically advanced means of manipulating one's breath.) Rajlaksmi asked her if she had read Light on Pranayama. The woman replied that she had not. Rajlaksmi told her that is was her duty to go home and read it and that if she did not understand after reading the book then she could come back next week and someone at The Institute would answer her questions.

So it seems to me that although we are always told there are no stupid questions, there are plenty of questions that displace our responsibility for learning onto our teachers. There are plenty of questions that we ask before we have searched books, resources, ourselves and our own experiences for the answer. So I think it is a great privilege to have the resource of a teacher, I really do. But I do wonder- having been on both sides of the teaching relationship many times, that quite often we ask as a first rather than last resort. (And, of course, sometimes asking first is appropriate.) It was just so great to see Rajlaksmi place the responsibility for that piece of information on the student first and still give the student an invitation to ask if she remained unclear. I know as a teacher, it is easy to just answer and "be the one who knows" rather than to really facilitate someone's learning process in a way might actually serve them more over the long haul.

Anyway learning and teaching is never dull. So while externally, life here in Pune hasn't necessarily been action-packed, the internal activity has more than made up for it. Plus, I think Anne and I have laughed more in these three weeks than I have all year. (And I laugh a lot.)

Okay- off to yoga class.